Since Xu Chi didn’t appreciate her goodwill and her superpower was useless against him, she had no choice but to leave. She restrained the somewhat resentful, twisted expression on her face and replied with a laugh:
“Okay then, it’s nothing, Brother Xu. It’s just that you didn’t come to work for the past few days. I was worried when I saw you back, so I just wanted to check on you. Since you’re fine, I’ll go back to being busy.”
After speaking, when she passed by Xu Chi, she even pretended not to have stood steady and viciously stepped on Xu Chi.
Those high heels were no joke. Xu Chi’s face went pale from the pain.
Jiang Qiuyun said, “Sorry, Brother Xu, I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Xu Chi said, “…It’s fine.”
Jiang Qiuyun sat back in her seat and chatted happily with the people beside her, smiling sweetly and charmingly as if nothing had happened.
Xu Chi: Don’t provoke women.
Xu Chi continued working without changing his expression, resting his chin on one hand. To others, he looked completely absorbed in thought about work.
But in reality, Xu Chi was distracted, thinking about the plot in the original novel.
Back then, the reason his colleague had mentioned this manga to him was because he had asked about it himself. During that period, his colleague was reading this manga during lunch breaks or whenever she had nothing to do, occasionally sniffing and crying with red eyes. That was why she told him about it, sobbing that the plot was too tragic, and also praising You Chumu for being handsome.
Only after entering the manga and inheriting the plot did Xu Chi understand why his colleague had cried like that…
Because in this manga, almost everyone got a bad ending. Very few had a good outcome.
The story starts in Salt City, a city split by extremes and filled with crime. There are not many good people there; almost everyone is evil. The original novel probably followed the principle that evil people do not get good endings, so those who did bad things either died or ended up worse than death.
Jiang Qiuyun worked for Tianke’s archenemy and survived within Tianke by relying on her superpower. By rights, she should have been a highly intelligent, outstanding woman in both behavior and judgment, but instead she was completely bewitched by a man.
That man was the director of Yi Xing, Tianke’s greatest rival. Yi Xing possessed technology and wealth on par with Tianke, and its influence in the global economic arena was comparable as well. The two groups often fought over resources everywhere.
The director of Yi Xing, Bo Shiliang, was thirty-two years old. Just removing the middle character from his name made it obvious how cold and heartless he was.
He picked up Jiang Qiuyun, tamed her, and made her work for him, pretending to give her the love she wanted while exploiting her in every possible way.
What man who truly loves a woman would make her seduce other men?
Yet Jiang Qiuyun was brainwashed into thinking this was her superpower, that using her superpower to work for the man she loved was her ability, something other women could never do. She believed only then would he love her.
Xu Chi’s moral compass was almost exploding.
And yet there really were people like that: they didn’t love themselves and instead consumed themselves to love someone else. And that someone was a piece of trash.
In the manga, Jiang Qiuyun lost two children for Bo Shiliang. When she was pregnant with the third, she wanted to keep the baby, but Bo Shiliang did not want it. Jiang Qiuyun’s body had also been damaged by the miscarriages, so she was not as useful to Bo Shiliang anymore. Seeing her as a nuisance, Bo Shiliang simply had someone deal with her.
Jiang Qiuyun died at the entrance of an alley on a snowy day, when she was five months pregnant. When she died, her eyes were still open.
She had hidden and dodged again and again, only to die at the hands of the man to whom she had given everything.
…In the original novel, Jiang Qiuyun was not a very important character. She was merely one of Bo Shiliang’s subordinates. Her only role was probably to steal Tianke’s important secrets and help Bo Shiliang bring Tianke down, after which Bo Shiliang would become the protagonist’s first stepping stone toward the international stage.
Jiang Qiuyun’s ending was not important. In the original novel, many people died under Bo Shiliang’s hands in all kinds of ways.
Xu Chi leaned back, and the chair swayed with his movement… He suddenly felt very unhappy…
Maybe it was because Jiang Qiuyun had just stepped on him. He hadn’t provoked Jiang Qiuyun, yet Jiang Qiuyun still stepped on him. It hurt so much. Why couldn’t Bo Shiliang, that piece of trash, have his skin stripped off and then be fried and deep-fried?
…So annoying. So now he knew everyone’s endings? Why did he need to know that?
At noon, after finishing work, Xu Chi was about to go eat when he thought of You Chumu at home.
He shouldn’t have blown up the pot again, right? He had already explained how to use the pot to him that morning. You Chumu was so smart; there was no way he would forget again.
Xu Chi had originally been shocked that You Chumu had made a mistake, because in the original novel, You Chumu had photographic memory and was a major villain who could perfectly imitate anything others had done.
At that moment, You Chumu was lying on the sofa, swaying slightly while playing with a black snake.
The snake was like a rope, bobbing up and down with the movement of his hand.
You Chumu was holding a book and looking at it expressionlessly, his left hand still wrapped in gauze.
Suddenly, a ringtone sounded once.
You Chumu paused and turned his head toward the source of the ringtone. The phone on the table was ringing.
He put down the book and sat up, and the snake on the floor vanished like mist in an instant.
He picked up the phone, sat with his legs apart, and looked at the message on it. It was from Xu Chi…
『If you can’t remember how to use the pot, then go downstairs and eat. After you leave the alley, turn left into the first alley and there’s a noodle shop there. Don’t go too far. You don’t eat spicy food, so remember to tell the boss not to add chili.』
『Remember to pay after ordering. Use the cash I gave you.』
『If the boss can’t make change, take a photo of the payment barcode and send it to me. I’ll pay for you.』
After reading the messages, You Chumu was silent for a long time. Then the corners of his mouth slowly began to rise, higher and higher. He gripped the phone, and his body began to tremble.
A kind of extreme excitement.
He was so excited that he even lowered his head, clutching the phone so hard that his fingers turned white, all just to hide his excitement.
He didn’t know why, but this person always made him this excited.
He really liked him. He really liked Brother Xu.
Like a fool…
He replied to Xu Chi: 『Okay, brother. Brother should remember to eat lunch too.』
He replied so obediently, of course because he had learned it… everything in this world could be learned: everything that makes people comfortable, everything that can be disguised, everything that can make people believe it is true.
After sending the message, he happily started humming again. The scenes he had seen that morning surfaced in his mind…
Brother was smiling at a man.
Brother had been stepped on by a woman.
And yesterday, Brother had been shouted at by that fat guy.
…How dare they. They all have to die…
But brother wouldn’t allow it, so he could only make sure brother never found out… It was fine. He would always find a way…
Brother was so cute. He had to keep brother in captivity and not let outsiders touch or contaminate him.
After humming for a while, he picked up the book on the table again. It was a black book, and four large characters were clearly printed on the cover…
The Object in the Palm
He lay down, flipped to the page he had just been reading, and continued to read…