Ever since she got that skeleton, Mu Mian stopped clinging to Fang Rui. The first thing she did every day before work was to take out her maintenance equipment: a delicate brush, and carefully clean the non-existent dust on the skeleton.
"Mian Mian, there's no dust up there, what are you brushing?" Chen Xue looked at Mu Mian in disbelief.
"I'm taking good care of it."
Seeing her like this, Chen Xue suddenly envisioned the noble treatment Fang Rui's remains would receive. She even wondered if Mu Mian was treating it as a substitute for Fang Rui's body?
Every time Fang Rui entered Mu Mian's office, he would see that skeleton. Although it had changed into a new set of clothes, Fang Rui still found it an eyesore. The thing was too ugly.
Whenever he saw Mu Mian brushing that skeleton, he had a strong urge to tear it apart.
Fang Rui somewhat regretted giving Mu Mian this gift. The skeleton was seriously affecting Mu Mian's work state.
This couldn't go on, he had to nip Mu Mian's bad habit of slacking off at work in the bud!
"Boss, look at you, you could have given anything, but you gave her this. Now Mu Mian doesn't even pay attention to you anymore," Zhang was making snarky comments on the side, "Hey, now you're not even as good as a skeleton."
Fang Rui glared at him, "Zhang Xiaoqiang, are you very free?"
"Boss, if you and that skeleton fell into the water at the same time, who do you think Comrade Mu Mian would save?" Zhang asked that classic question.
"Mu Mian can't swim," Fang Rui thought Mu Mian might save the skeleton. But Mu Mian couldn't swim. The result would be that he'd still have to fish out Mu Mian and her precious skeleton, which was annoying just to think about.
"But don't worry, Boss. The clever Zhang has a good idea." Zhang had a "go on, ask me, ask me" smug little expression.
"If you want to say it, just say it quickly."
Zhang eagerly shared his great plan.
He didn't like that skeleton either. Every time he went in to find Chen Xue, he felt like that skeleton was staring at him, giving him the creeps.
He had wanted to do something about that skeleton for a long time.
The next day, when Mu Mian opened her office door and took out her little brush from the cabinet as usual, she was surprised to find that the skeleton was gone.
The magic wand made from the radius bone lay lonely on the ground.
Damn it, how dare a thief steal something from a police station! He's too brazen!
Mu Mian was both sad and angry. She quickly sent a message in the large group chat.
Mu Mian: Something terrible happened, a thief broke into my office and stole the gift Fang Rui gave me, a very beautiful resin skeleton. It was wearing a lich wizard's clothes, it was so cool. I need help, everyone please help me catch the thief quickly.
Zhang: Maybe it really turned into a lich wizard and burrowed into the ground?
Mu Mian: Officer Zhang, there's no magic in this world. Besides, lich wizards can only summon corpses and skeleton minions from the ground, they can't burrow into the soil themselves. They would suffocate. Only earth mages can burrow around in the soil.
Zhang: ......
Director Wang Yong: Little Mu, I confiscated your skeleton. The higher-ups are coming for an inspection soon, and having such a thing in your office would seriously affect our city bureau's image.
Mu Mian: Director, but it's not ugly.
Wang of Technical Department: My money tree isn't ugly either, it's beautifully green, but it was also confiscated, saying I was engaging in feudal superstition. It's just called a money tree, it's not like it can actually make me rich.
Old Zhang: My little pixiu was confiscated too, it's just gold-colored, not made of real gold, but they had to say I was flaunting my wealth. I'm so poor I'm jingling, what wealth could I possibly flaunt!
Director Wang Yong: ......
Director Wang Yong: You two have a lot of grievances, huh? Do you need me to do some ideological work with you?
Mu Mian was dumbfounded, so she wasn't the only unlucky one! But that was the first gift Fang Rui had given her! Mu Mian decided to try one more time.
Mu Mian: Director, can you please give it back to me? I promise I won't bring it to the bureau. [Pitiful.jpg]
Director Wang Yong: Little Mu, I'm sorry, if you had said something earlier it would have been fine. It's already been taken away by the garbage collectors. It's probably been buried in the landfill by now, I can't give it back to you.
In the corridor, Wang and Old Zhang looked helplessly at Zhang as he returned their phones to them. "Thanks for the help, brothers."
Wang felt a bit guilty: "Don't you think this is going too far? Forensic Mu looks really upset, she genuinely liked that creepy thing."
"Didn't you find that creepy thing scary?" Zhang asked in return.
"Uh... a bit. One night when I was working overtime, I passed by Forensic Mu's office and accidentally glanced inside. My god, it scared me to death. Zhang, you did very well! I didn't expect you to be so useful this time."
"Haven't I always been useful? It's just that the boss and others are too smart, overshadowing my brilliance."
"Hmm... you're very funny."
When Fang Rui entered Mu Mian's office, he saw her hugging the magic wand made from the radius bone, looking very dejected.
Fang Rui held his head, damn it, he forgot to take away that bone!
"Fang Rui, the first gift you gave me was confiscated by the director. It was taken to the garbage station, and can never be found again." Mu Mian's voice was tearful.
Seeing her like this, Fang Rui somewhat regretted listening to Zhang's bad idea. He thought, if worst comes to worst, he could just go down to the storage room and bring that skeleton back to Mu Mian.
"Fang Rui, I'm sorry, I didn't protect the gift you gave me well." Mu Mian felt overwhelmed by immense sadness. Fang Rui had finally given her a gift, and it was confiscated.
"You care about it because it was a gift from me?" Fang Rui was a bit surprised. He thought Mu Mian just liked that skeleton.
"Of course, it was the first gift you gave me, I took very good care of it, maintaining it every day," Mu Mian said, "I used to have many resin skeleton models like that at home, my dad even gave me a real one, but all of them combined weren't as good as the one you gave me."
"I see... Then I'll give you other gifts in the future." Fang Rui patted her head.
Mu Mian's eyes immediately lit up, "Really?"
"Yes. But I can't give you this anymore. That skeleton gift wasn't good at all, because every time I saw it, I felt very scared. I think it's quite good that it was confiscated."
"But you weren't afraid of those prop corpses in that escape room store."
"They were just corpses, this was a skeleton, there's a difference."
"Okay. So you're afraid of skeletons." Mu Mian felt regretful, bones were so beautiful, yet Fang Rui was afraid of them. She decided not to let Fang Rui see her carefully collected bone specimens in the future.
She was afraid Fang Rui would be scared to death.
"Fang Rui, next time you give me a gift, can you give me a body donation agreement?" Mu Mian carefully negotiated with him, "That would make me happy for many years."
Fang Rui neither refused nor agreed, he asked, "You're not sad anymore now?"
"Not sad. If I had known you didn't like it, I wouldn't have taken such good care of it," Mu Mian cheered up again, "You don't know, maintaining it every day was very tiring for me. I was so tired I had no energy for socializing."
"...Do you care that much about the gifts I give you?"
So Mu Mian liked that skeleton because it was a gift from him.
"Of course. I cherish every gift I receive. Sister says every gift should be treated well." Mu Mian thought of Jiang Yun and quickly added, "Except for that pink little bag, it was too ugly, I couldn't keep it."
"Who gave it to you?"
"Miss Jiang gave it to me. She's the worst gift-giver I've ever met." Mu Mian sighed, "You can't even imagine how ugly that pink bag was."
"......"
Chen Xue noticed that Mu Mian, who had just looked like the sky was falling, had fully recovered after just a short conversation with Fang Rui.
"Mu Mian, your lich wizard was confiscated, and you were only sad for such a short while?" Chen Xue felt a bit sorry for the skeleton lying in the storage room among a pile of miscellaneous items.
Mu Mian's love was too short-lived, it didn't even need time to erode, it was gone in an instant.
"Fang Rui has agreed to give me a different gift. I asked him to give me a body donation form, and he didn't refuse," Mu Mian said with a slightly smug expression.
"But he didn't agree either!" Chen Xue had heard their entire conversation clearly, as they hadn't paid any attention to her presence in the office.
"That's true, so I still need to work on it," Mu Mian replied.
"Well, keep at it then," Chen Xue encouraged.
