The Man Was Fired by His Boss for Being Too Handsome

"Enough talking. Let's eat." Baku bared his big teeth and crunched noisily through the chunk of black bread.

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei broke the sandwich in half and handed one half back to him.

This time, Baku did not say anything more.

He broke off a piece of black bread and returned it, then carefully held the half sandwich stuffed with meat and egg. He narrowed his eyes and sniffed it before taking small bites.

Then, like an old smoker blowing smoke rings, he looked so satisfied that steam seemed to puff from his nostrils, and he kept humming.

Even the skin on both his cheeks relaxed as if he had received some kind of rejuvenating treatment.

Watching him made Li Wei hungry too.

He picked up his half of the sandwich and took a huge bite—

Fuck, even the ham had gone bad!

Even Cho'Gath would have the shits after eating this!

Li Wei cursed the unscrupulous vendor's mother inwardly, but he still finished every last bite.

"Baku, I'm leaving first." He stood up, patted the dust off his butt, and prepared to head home.

But Li Wei did not get to leave.

Not because Baku tried to stop him.

The moment he stood up, he ran straight into a fat man with a wicked grin.

The fat man had an amount of blubber rarely seen on Zaunites, yet he sported a bright green mohawk in full Zaunite style.

The apprentices, no matter how flamboyant their hairstyles had been back in Zaun, would consciously or unconsciously switch to ordinary short hair after arriving in Piltover in order to blend into their surroundings.

Yet this fat man had deliberately kept his Zaunite punk-green hair. His arms, thicker than pork legs, were covered in tattoos popular in Zaun—though the design was rather distinctive: a savage mechanical iron fist.

He was not dressed like that to make his fellow Zaunites feel close to him.

He dressed like that to make people afraid.

"Y-you..." The moment Baku saw the fat man's face, he shrank back in fright and did not dare speak. "Boss Aubrey, y-you... why are you here?"

Fatty Aubrey was the younger brother of "Iron Fist" Avery, leader of the Iron Fist Gang, Piltover's largest Zaunite gang. The two brothers had long been notorious among the Zaunite Apprentices, two living devils whose evil reputation spread far and wide.

Of course Li Wei knew him too.

Because the usurious loan owed by the original owner of this body had been borrowed from this fat man.

"Li Wei, what a coincidence." Fatty Aubrey chuckled maliciously. "I came looking for you yesterday, but couldn't find you. I thought you'd already run back to Zaun!"

"Looks like you haven't run away after all. So, do you have money to pay your debt now?"

He pressed down on Li Wei's shoulder from above, instantly making the air tense.

"Boss Aubrey..." Baku gathered his courage and tried to ease the tension from the side. "It's only a little money. Why would you need to come in person? Li Wei, he—"

"Get lost! Is there any place for you to speak here?!"

Baku promptly shut his mouth and retreated to the side timidly.

Seeing this, the surrounding apprentices voluntarily backed away into a large circle. They watched, but none dared get too close.

"Li Wei." Fatty Aubrey sneered at him. "The deadline I gave you passed long ago. Tell me, do you have the money now?"

Of course he did not.

Li Wei instinctively clenched the money pouch at his waist. It held next month's wages, barely enough to cover rent.

As for the usurious loan he had borrowed from Aubrey, the interest had already compounded upon compounded upon compounded until he could not repay it even if he worked for the rest of his life.

"Can you give me a few more days?" Li Wei asked helplessly.

The starting situation the original owner had left him was practically hell difficulty. He had plenty of ideas for making money, but reality kept hammering him one blow after another, not giving him even a moment to put those ideas into action.

"Are you kidding? I'm not giving you any more time!"

"Since you have no money to pay... heh heh."

What could a pauper possibly have that was worth selling?

Quite a lot, actually.

And Aubrey and the Iron Fist Gang behind him had all kinds of channels for turning a living person into cash, whether whole or in pieces.

That was why the Zaunite Apprentices feared these fellow countrymen more than anything.

"Li Wei, Li Wei." Aubrey sneered. "Debts must be repaid. That is only natural."

"You wouldn't want your little sister to be unable to finish university in Piltover, would you?"

"Try laying a hand on my sister!" Li Wei's gaze instantly turned cold.

"Who the fuck would want your sister? There are plenty of Zaunite girls selling themselves, and how much could she be worth? These days, you can pass four or five Zaunite brothels on a single street in Piltover. Their prices have long since crashed!"

"But you—"

Aubrey looked Li Wei up and down like he was inspecting merchandise.

"You, on the other hand, are a rare commodity. You've got plenty of potential to be cultivated."

Li Wei: "..."

"So? I advise you to obediently take the job."

"Piltover's rich ladies are all desperate these days, while there are few quality goods willing to do this line of work. Not only are the prices ridiculously high, people have to fucking line up and make appointments."

Aubrey was actually enthusiastically analyzing the Blue Ocean Market with Li Wei, studying the industry ecosystem.

"Let me package and train you up. Not only will you pay off this debt, you'll get to sleep with those high-and-mighty madams and young ladies every day."

"You know the Medarda Family, right? Even they come to order services. Work hard under me and keep them satisfied. Maybe one day you'll even become a 'noble lord' of Noxus."

"..." Li Wei remained silent.

"What, you're still unwilling?"

That fat face instantly darkened.

But Li Wei still did not answer. He merely glanced at Fatty Aubrey, looked around, and asked:

"You came alone?"

"Yeah." Aubrey answered instinctively. "Why?"

"Nothing. Just—"

Li Wei grabbed that half chunk of black bread, hard as tank armor, and smashed it straight into his head.

"Fuck your mother!"

Across the street, at the Erwin residence.

Seraphine walked dazedly to the window and pulled open the curtains as if possessed.

Outside was a broad road. Across it stood a cluster of bustling Breakfast Stalls, along with Zaunite Apprentices squatting or standing as they hurried through breakfast.

"That song is over there..."

"Eh? Why can't I hear it again?"

Seraphine still could not control her ability. The sound she had been able to hear moments ago had suddenly vanished again.

Usually, that would have been a relief to her.

But this time, unable to hear that Soul Music, she was like a fish deprived of water, so restless it felt as though she could not breathe.

"I've never heard that song before!"

Seraphine leaned against the window and sighed in frustration.

She stared across the street, as though trying to find the Soul-Singing Wonder among those antlike workers.

"All right, all right." Mr. Ervin, who had been left dumbfounded, finally stepped forward and patted his daughter's shoulder. "Seraphine, come back and eat."

"Stop looking. What is there to see? They're just a bunch of apprentices. If you want to look at them, I'll have them line up for you later!"

"No, it's different!"

Seraphine stared out the window with unusual stubbornness.

"There's someone among them whose soul sings."

"It's a song I've never heard before. An utterly magnificent song!"

"Sigh..." The Erwins exchanged glances and shook their heads helplessly.

Their precious daughter was acting up with those artist's bad habits again.

"Isn't it just a song?"

"What good songs could Zaunites possibly compose?"

"But Dad, didn't you and Mom come from Zaun too?" Seraphine pouted. "I'm half Zaunite too. Don't I understand music?"

"Nonsense!" Mr. Ervin answered firmly. "Nini, you are not half Zaunite. You were born in Piltover and have nothing whatsoever to do with that rotten place called Zaun!"

"Your mother and I worked so hard to make sure you were born here precisely so you would not spend half your life burdened by the label of being a 'Zaunite,' like we did!"

"I..." Seraphine felt that something about that was wrong.

But it did not seem worth thinking too deeply about.

Rather than discussing such meaningless things, she was more concerned about that song of which she had heard only a few fragments.

Unfortunately, she still could not freely control when her ability activated.

Now that she wanted to hear it, she could not.

She could only look.

But what could she see by looking?

Only a group of greasy, scruffy workers, and... the commotion they were watching?

As she watched, Seraphine unconsciously gave up on that seemingly hopeless search and began watching the commotion too.

Two men stood surrounded by the crowd.

One was a fat man with a green mohawk, while the other was a black-haired, black-eyed youth in work clothes.

"Are they workers from our family too?"

Seraphine looked curiously at her father.

Mr. Ervin looked over from afar and vaguely made out their faces. When he recognized the fat man's identity in particular, his expression immediately became troubled.

Still, he answered his daughter gently, "Yes, they are workers from our family."

"What is his name?"

"Li Wei," Erwin answered instinctively.

Then he suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait. Nini, why are you asking his name?"

"I just wanted to ask..."

Seraphine rested her cheek on one hand and idly swung one leg by the window.

"Li Wei... is that right? Dad, can I meet this person someday?"

"I feel like looking at him might give me more inspiration when I write love songs."

Erwin: "..."

The good boss's expression instantly changed.

"No! You cannot meet him!"

"Why? Isn't he one of our workers?"

"He used to be."

"Now he's been fired."

Having signed the contract, I'm specially asking for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~