At around eight in the evening, Wu Qinglan finally arrived, bringing along the dog-headed mascot suit.

“Hm? Xiao Kai is going too tomorrow?”

When she heard that I’d be accompanying Dad to the costume ball, she sounded a little surprised.

“I wasn’t planning to go originally…”

Staring solemnly at the messy fence outside the window, I said with great gravity:

“I… was defeated by money and desire.”

Wu Qinglan looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Dad, completely unsparing, explained bluntly, “I promised to double his allowance.”

“Heh. You really are… easy to deal with.”

Wu Qinglan let out a faintly mocking snort, then asked,
“Still, it is a costume ball. You’re supposed to dress up, you know. Do you even have anything suitable to wear?”

“Uh… no. How about I just wear a face mask?”

Those over-the-top costumes people wear to masquerades—I really don’t have anything like that. And Notebook-sama refuses to turn into men’s clothing.

“Who goes to a costume ball wearing just a face mask?” Wu Qinglan thought for a moment, then suggested,
“You definitely wouldn’t agree to cross-dressing, so how about wearing a proper disguise mask instead? We have plenty of those at the Witch’s Workshop.”

“Ah—then a disguise mask it is. I’ll leave it to you.”

“Alright, I’ll bring one over tomorrow.”

With my issue settled, she stuffed the mascot suit she’d brought into Dad’s hands.

“Then, Uncle Chang, try the suit on first.”

Dad hesitated, waving it off. “Didn’t I already wear this before? Is there really a need to bring it over early? I can just put it on before we leave tomorrow.”

Seeing that Dad didn’t really want to wear it, Wu Qinglan simply pulled open the zipper of the suit and started to slide it on from his legs.

“Nope, you have to try it on! I made a lot of modifications specifically for your situation, Uncle Chang—especially the headpiece… anyway, it’s better if you get used to it first!”

Her assertiveness flustered Dad a bit.

“Alright, alright! I get it, I’ll put it on myself! Let go!”

Modifications?

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but study the mascot suit more closely—it didn’t look all that different from before.

As Dad put it on, Wu Qinglan explained,
“I thickened all the inner padding. Even light contact won’t be very noticeable, and it also significantly increases the suit’s impact resistance.”

I immediately understood her line of thinking.

With this setup, even if Dad accidentally brushed against a woman, his brain wouldn’t short-circuit from tactile input. The added impact resistance was useful too—if he ran into some unruly kid again, at least he wouldn’t get dislocated.

Dad pinched at the pant leg and remarked,
“This really is thick. The weather’s warmed up a bit lately, but wearing this is still pretty hot—feels like a big padded coat.”

Wu Qinglan continued smugly,
“Heh heh, I thought of that too. I installed two inward-facing fans on the sides of the waist for ventilation and temperature control. The switch is on the back of the left hand, and the battery pack is at the lower back.”

Dad fumbled around under the fabric on the back of his hand. A low hum of fans came from inside the suit.

He moved his limbs a bit. “Mobility’s not bad. The fans alone aren’t quite enough, but they’re better than nothing.”

After pulling up the zipper at the back of his neck, Wu Qinglan picked up the dog-head helmet. I noticed that the bottom opening was no longer loose and open—it now had elastic cinching, ensuring a tight seal once worn.

“Normally, mascot heads have something like a safety helmet inside at the top, but for better sound insulation, this reinforced headpiece actually contains a motorcycle helmet! There’s also a built-in headset that can connect to a walkie-talkie.”

That thing was huge. Wu Qinglan lifted it and plopped it straight onto Dad’s head. Once he adjusted it into a comfortable position, she fished out the headset cable from under the headpiece and plugged it into a walkie-talkie.

Holding the walkie-talkie, she asked, “Uncle Chang, how does it feel?”

Dad replied, “Heavy!”

Well, it was a motorcycle helmet inside.

“Is it okay to go to the costume ball like this?”

“It’s a bit uncomfortable, but there’s probably no better option, right?”

There was helplessness in Dad’s tone. He then pointed at the dog-man’s mouth area—basically where his eyes were.

“Could you also block this part? Keeping my eyes closed the whole time tomorrow would be exhausting.”

Wu Qinglan patted the mascot head.

“I already thought of that. The visor inside the helmet has been tinted black—flip it down and you won’t see anything.”

Dad asked, “How do I flip it down? The opening’s sealed—I can’t get my hands inside.”

“You don’t need to,” Wu Qinglan explained over the walkie-talkie. “Just lower your head and the visor will drop. Tilt your head back and it flips up again.”

Hearing this, Dad sharply lowered his head. A crisp click sounded from inside the helmet—presumably the visor dropping.

“Oh! So that’s how it works!”

“…It’s a bit bulky, but with this suit, I can attend the ball after all.”

Honestly, it looked pretty bloated. He might as well have gone with an astronaut cosplay. Still, being unable to see, hear clearly, or even feel light contact, this mascot suit truly was a custom-made “isolation ward” designed specifically for Dad.

“I didn’t know you had skills like this…”

“Hehe, it was a group effort from our circle. The extra padding was done by Scarlet-chan, the helmet was 3D-printed by Crow, and the installation and wiring for the walkie-talkie and fans were handled by Flash.”

“So you let them do all the work—what did you do?”

“I paid for it, of course! The padding materials, the motorcycle helmet, the modified headset—none of that was free!”

…Fair enough. After all, you’re their Captain with nothing other than money.

I asked, “What time is it tomorrow?”

Dad took off the headpiece and let out a long breath. He’d only worn it for a few minutes, but his hair was already a mess, like someone pulling their head out of a sweater in winter, and his forehead was shiny with sweat.

“I remember it starts at eleven in the morning. We need to arrive at the hotel by ten-thirty.”

I was surprised. “A ball at lunchtime?”

Wu Qinglan explained, “Yeah. If it goes too late at night, it affects work the next day.”

“Honestly, shouldn’t team-building events be held during work hours? Making employees sacrifice their holidays—and making it seem antisocial if they don’t go—your company’s really something.”

“Exactly! Team building and all this nonsense. They should just work properly—there’s so much to do after the holidays anyway.”

Dad, who already disliked group activities, naturally nodded along with me… though his mindset was undeniably that of a corporate drone.

Wu Qinglan, on the other hand, looked briefly awkward and even started defending it:
“As Uncle Chang said, our department’s workload is huge. If we hold team-building during work hours, we’d have to make up for it with insane overtime afterward. That’d be counterproductive, wouldn’t it?”

A company capable of producing an elite corporate drone like my dad was definitely a black-hearted enterprise since they’re already running overtime all the time.

After Dad finished trying on the mascot suit, Wu Qinglan didn’t plan to stay long.

“Then I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning. I can bring breakfast too.”

As I walked her to the entryway, she suddenly waved me over.

Covering her mouth, she whispered into my ear,
“Xiao Kai, have you thought about getting your driver’s license? Your dad will have to rely on you when he goes out in the future.”

“I’m seventeen. I’m not old enough yet, I can only take the test next year.”

“Then start learning this year! I got my license at eighteen!”

“Oh? So you’re an unmarried veteran driver with ten years of experience.”

She reached out and pinched my cheek.

“You brat, you never say anything decent. ‘Unmarried’ was totally unnecessary! Just wait—I’ll take your dad tomorrow, and then you can call me Mom!”

She realized she’d spoken a bit loudly and nervously glanced at my dad, only to find that he’d already gone back into the living room to tinker with the dog-head helmet.

“I’m off, I’m off.”

She drove away, leaving behind glowing red taillights.

The yard gate hadn’t been closed yet when I spotted a suspicious figure sneaking in from outside, slipping into the shadows by the fence and tiptoeing toward the side of the house—right beneath my bedroom window.

At that moment, the person noticed me too.

“Uh… Commander?”

I took a closer look—it really was Xiao Lei. Was she planning to climb through the window?

The silly girl scratched her head and asked,
“Did you come out specially to pick me up because you calculated when I got off work?”

“That’s impossible!”