Chapter 22

By all means, having a new head for Future Media was a great thing, especially if it meant that its previous steward was transferred someplace else where she couldn’t loom over him anymore. And according to the rumor mill, the replacement was far from a petty cunt looking to flex his power.

Despite that happy news, Mozi couldn’t help but feel nervous as he sat across from the keen-eyed director who was staring down at the small stack of papers that was no doubt filled with Shu Ling’s venomous take of Mozi’s performance.

It didn’t matter, he told himself; at most, Mozi would finally get fired and be free to find employment elsewhere.

“Mister Mozi Yiufang…” the director finally spoke, looking up to bore his gaze into Mozi after seconds of sifting through the papers. “It seems that you have a…colorful record on you.”

Mozi drew in a breath to respond, but Xing lifted a few sheets in one hand and continued on.

“It is interesting… My predecessor, Miss Shu Ling, paints a rather damning picture of your conduct. She’s given me all this to warn me. By her account, you are still employed despite the grave transgression against her person, and only because of your family ties to Future Industries. In these reports, she is being most magnanimous for enduring your presence despite what you’ve done to her.”

Mozi almost sneered at the bitch’s lies. Then the director let the papers slip through his hand and with the other, reached for a separate folder and patted it softly. It was hard not to glance at the plain and mysterious packet.

“And yet, the testimonies I’ve gathered casts you in a slightly different light; that you’ve been a diligent employee, content to keep your head down and your business to himself. Quiet, but not aloof. Intelligent, but not arrogant. Pretty much everyone asked has expressed their surprise that you could be such a knave.”

The director leaned back in his seat and regarded Mozi in a neutral and rather unjudging gaze.

“And I also realize that I do not have your version of events…”

Mozi gulped as he recalled his contract, and began to answer. “It’s all on record-”

“The records only state what you’ve done, with your name stamped onto it as verification, petty typist Mozi. It contains Miss Shu Ling’s harrowing testimony, as well as the testimonies of the two eyewitnesses. It does not, however, contain any transcription from you.”

Despite Xing being further back, the steely stare made Mozi feel like the director was right against his face.

“I wish to hear it from you, Mozi. Did you truly try to accost then Chief Officer Shu Ling?”

It took several tries of opening and closing his mouth before he could reply. “N-No… No, sir.” The denial threw a heavy burden off Mozi’s shoulders, and he slumped a little into his seat. “It…I didn’t lay a hand on her, I swear it.”

Xing frowned, and there was a sense that the doubt emanating off him wasn’t directed at Mozi. “And yet the two witnesses said that Miss Shu Ling was in a state of undress, by your feet when they ran towards her screams.” The skepticism was surprisingly heavy in his voice, while his fingers drummed on the desk between them. “But given that she said you were trying to tear off her clothes as you pinned her hands down, I’m surprised you had the time and skill to neatly unfasten her qipao.”

Mozi nodded, the bitter memories of that day bubbling up. “She…approached…propositioned me, that evening.”

“Miss Shu Ling and you were…”

He quickly shook his head. “No. I al- I never accepted her advances.”

“But she still persisted?”

Mozi nodded again, gulping down the taste of bile as he remembered the cloying scent of her perfume as she leaned too close towards him on several occasions, and he shuddered with disgust at the phantom tingling of her manicured nails lightly running down his thigh that evening. “I…I already…have someone else. She knows that. But…”

The director let out a soft sigh, and there was a deep sympathy in his eyes. “What set her off and made her accuse you of attempting to rape her?”

Mozi tried not to so much as blink, fearful of seeing Li Ming’s horrified face again. “I-I told her I was already engaged, that we shouldn’t…I shouldn’t…”

There was another, more drawn out sigh. “So she was already half-naked when you firmly rejected her, at which point she started screaming.”

A silent nod was all he could manage as he fought off the memories of the wails of denial that had condemned him.

“And did she know there’d be people still on the floor?”

This time Mozi firmly shook his head. “She was surprised when the doors opened…”

“But she quickly improvised and you are where you are now.”

Demoted down to merely a typist in a dark corner of the building, looked down and avoided by everyone, barely making enough to get by, and unable to leave his humiliating post because of the damning repercussions.

“Y-Yes sir.”

The office air tasted stale as silence filled the room for several long seconds, and then finally Xing let out another heavy sigh. “So why, after all that, has Miss Shu Ling basically put you on indentured servitude instead of simply firing you? Besides looking beyond magnanimous to save your family’s face?”

The Yiufang clan was one of Hiroshi Sato’s earliest investors, which was what landed Mozi his once-cushy job in Future Media in the first place. The clan also was entrenched in more traditional views, which meant that to the elders, Mozi getting a criminal record like this in older days would’ve been a scandal that only exile or death could wash away. To save face, the Yiufang clan gladly gave Mozi up to Shu Ling, all but disowning him in exchange for having no charges pressed. Officially, Mozi had merely carried out ‘gross misconduct’ that warranted discipline.

He’d still be in Future Media, so that the clan wouldn’t suffer the shame of their scion being thrown out due to a terrible crime, or lend truth to the rumors of his wrongdoing.

Mozi remembered the days when Shu Ling would drop by the janitor’s closet that was his office to sneer at him, wondering aloud what Li Ming would make of his sorry situation while also threatening the girl’s life in the same breath.

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“You’re worse than useless, but you’re mine. And I won’t let some stupid bitch take what’s mine. Maybe you’ll eventually learn your lesson, but until you learn how to grovel…”

And he never did. Not when he still clung onto the vain hope that Li Ming might still, somehow, take him back. Assuming he managed to escape this hellhole.

“She…she is possessive…?” was all he could offer.

“Bloody young-day-rays,” Mozi thought he heard the director mutter.

“Unfortunately, much as I believe you, unless you take this to the authorities, your name will remain tarnished. However, as Miss Shu Ling chose to withhold all this paperwork from entering the company’s records and Republic City’s police archives, you’ve officially only got the stain of unfounded allegations on you. Frankly, all this blackmail material she’s given me is only dangerous to your clan’s standing, not to yourself.”

It was so easy to say that. Mozi sighed dejectedly. “But…if she took this to court…”

Surprisingly, the new director broke into a smirk. “As I’ve brought up earlier, I noticed some inconsistencies in her testimony, and there are more. Beyond her neatly removed dress, no bruises were recorded, nor any other signs of struggle. She said you pinned her down, but I noticed that the cleanup crew didn’t mention any disorder to your desk nor the charts on your wall in their cleaning reports. Yours is not an outright lost case, Mozi. It just would require a lot of work…”

The smirk grew, though Mozi noted that it contained a tinge of sourness. “If it comes down to it, I know an Avatar would be interested in hearing of such an ordeal.”

“Wh- You know the Avatar?”

Xing gave a light shrug before he answered. “I’m…acquainted with Avatar Korra. And I can attest to the fact that she has a strong sense of justice…regardless of how capable she is at meting it out. If you bring your predicament to her, along with sufficient proof of your innocence, you’d have a powerful supporter who’d go out of her way to right the wrongs before her.”

Despite the reassuring contents of his words, why did Xing not sound too enthused or pleased saying all that?

Still, Avatar support or not… “It’d cost too much,” Mozi muttered, and Xing agreed with a slow nod.

“Unfortunately so. It will be an uphill battle, and you’d likely be bled dry regardless of whether you clear your name or not. And that’s before damages you have to cover if you involve the Avatar and she gets…proactive.”

The last joke wasn’t exactly funny, but Mozi kept silent.

“If it helps,” Xing added, “as the new director of Future Media, I can revert your unique employment contract back to something more…normal. So, effective as of yesterday, seeing that I have no official reason to continue her sanctions, you are no longer beholden to Miss Shu Ling’s more oppressive terms.”

Mozi stiffened and stared blankly at Xing in disbelief and surprise. He almost wanted to jump with joy, but this sounded too good to be true. The director then pushed two separate sheets of paper across the desk towards him.

“It’s a small consolation, I know, but I am able to offer you two choices now, moving forwards, Mister Mozi.”

Mozi picked the forms, and read through the one that Xing gestured to first. “One: You are free to resign from Future Media. The…debt owed to Miss Shu Ling will be written off, and you are free to pursue other careers - even among the competition - without fear of your alleged but undocumented misconduct haunting you. I can provide a suitable cover story to not risk the Yiufang clan’s reputation…I’m a young director, I can afford to make some reckless changes to mark my entry into the company.”

Mozi licked his lips as he stared at the resignation form before him. It was tempting, and also very generous of Xing… He glanced up at the man across him, who seemed to be studying him carefully.

“Option two,” Xing said while nodding at the other sheet of paper - a new employment contract. “You’ll be immediately reinstated back as secretary to the director, which will also serve as a review period to decide if you would be a better fit someplace else within Future Media. Considering that the former chief officer had assigned you for…personal reasons, rather than out of any qualifications or merits you might actually have.”

It wasn’t the fairest deal from the company, but from the man who’d just took control of the company, Mozi knew it was about as fair a chance as he was going to get.

Xing slowly got up, keeping his gaze on Mozi all the while. “You seem to be a good man, Mozi. I suggest you make your decision by tomorrow at the latest, so I can decide whether to start looking for a replacement or not.”

“I…thank you, sir.”

The young director gave a light shrug. “You should save your thanks for your girlfriend.”

Girlfriend?

“A certain Miss Li Ming approached me yesterday just as I was entering the premises. She begged me to free her wrongfully disgraced betrothed who was condemned here.”

Mozi could only stare at the director blankly.

“You’re a lucky man, Mister Mozi. I wish you two all the best, whatever decision you make… Oh, she’ll be dropping by around noon. I’ve told the guards to lift the ban on her entry.”

Mozi left the office in a daze, and barely held any awareness of the rest of the morning. He only snapped out of it when he recognized Li Ming’s achingly familiar face as she ran and embraced him in his tiny closet of a workstation. It took several dumbstruck moments before he finally broke into an emotional wreck, and thankfully nobody disturbed the two of them as they sobbed into each others’ arms.

Later in the evening, after he’d composed himself, Mozi entered the director’s office once more, this time of his own volition.

“Sir?”

Xing calmly looked up from a mess of papers and folders. The bin beside the desk was also half-buried under a pile of crumpled paper. “You made your decision, I hope?”

“I…I’d like to ask a few questions, if I could?”

Xing sighed softly as he nodded and abandoned his attention to the paperwork beneath him. “Ask away.” He gestured to the empty chair across the desk, and Mozi slipped into the cushioned seat with far less apprehension this time.

“If…if I chose to resign… Would Shu Ling know?”

“As far as I know, Miss Shu Ling has been promoted to oversee the modernisation and operations of the Huoshui water mills, near Senlin Village. You’ll have at least a couple of days’ head start if you choose to flee Republic City.”

“What about yourself?” Shu Ling has proven herself to be a spiteful bitch, after all.

Yet Xing didn’t seem at all perturbed or amused. “If the former chief officer wishes to protest your emancipation…” He absently picked at the paper under his hands, and a dark grin flashed on his face for a fraction of a second, startling Mozi. “Well, I do hope that she can provide me with far more concrete evidence of my mistake, otherwise I’ll have to raise concerns to the relevant authorities of false accusations and gross abuse of power. Imagine the Yiufang clan hearing that their scion had been framed and their gratitude engineered.”

Mozi heard himself gulping, and silently made a note to not cross this man before him.

“Did you have any other questions?”

“Oh…uh…yes. Yes, sir. If I choose to remain in Future Media, what if…what if my colleagues decided that they find my presence, um, intolerable?”

Xing was thoughtfully silent for a few seconds before answering. “I do not have solutions for that, unfortunately. People will believe what they want to believe. It will be up to you, in the end, to prove whatever rumors about you wrong. If it’s any consolation, many people I’ve asked so far seemed truly surprised that you would - or even could - assault Shu Ling.”

“I…I see. Thank you, sir.”

The following day, as Mozi returned to Future Media with his decision, he was greeted by a crowd of apologetic coworkers.

“We’re so sorry about what happened to you!”

“Look man, I didn’t know she was such a waspquito! I should have said something…”

“Spirits, we didn’t know! We’re so, so sorry, we didn’t know she was lying!”

It took a confused Mozi several attempts before he understood why he was being mobbed. Someone had taken a good peek into Director Xing’s paperwork last night, and found his skepticism of his predecessor’s testimony, complete with annotations and notes. That knowledge spread in the morning and a lot of harbored doubts and speculations were unearthed, culminating in the grim apologies and regretful sobbing all around him.

Days later, as Mozi processed Director Xing’s incoming paperwork, he couldn’t help but grin as he read the circular that was sent to all of Future Industries’ subsidiaries.

Shu Ling Jia had been terminated and banned from the Future Industries Group, and was being investigated for gross misconduct. Appended was a personal apology from Hiroshi Sato to employees and investors of the oversight of the vague crime that has been committed, as well as a reminder for everyone to raise any suspected wrongdoing towards the company to the higher ups.

Mozi had to stop himself from whistling as he rose up from his old desk outside the director’s office to pass the memo to Xing.