Qin Zhen’s pupils and wrist suffered a sudden jolt, freezing all his actions instantly as he stared at the knife tip inches from his face.
In the quiet night, every unknown sensory detail was infinitely amplified, and Shen Jin’an’s voice coiled around him like an ice-extracted viper, “What are you trying to do?”
Leaning over the edge of the bed, Qin Zhen thought to himself that he probably wouldn’t live long in this life either; sooner or later, he would be scared to death by this plague god, Shen Jin’an.
This guy was definitely trained as an assassin; his movements were as fast as a ghost’s shadow.
Unfortunately, he really didn’t have much to be afraid of. Since their lives were bound together anyway, he straightened up a little, retreated, and flicked his chin toward the water glass on the nightstand, “I brought you some water. In the middle of the night, what else could I possibly be doing? Trying to take advantage of you?”
Right as his voice fell, he pulled his left hand out from Shen Jin’an’s grasp, used his backhand to pin Shen Jin’an’s wrist against the side of the pillow, and leaned in close to Shen Jin’an’s ear.
The two of them were pressed very close together. Qin Zhen’s scorching breath brushed right against Shen Jin’an’s earlobe, his lips seeming almost on the verge of pressing down.
Shen Jin’an’s mind went blank for a second. Before he could react, his other hand holding the dagger was silently pressed downward by Qin Zhen.
“I have said it several times already. You always holding a knife makes it easy to scare people to death. I’m considered your savior after all. One should still know how to show gratitude, hmm?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he released Shen Jin’an’s hand and turned to leave.
Yet Shen Jin’an looked as though he were possessed. With black-and-white clarity, his eyes stared fixedly at Qin Zhen’s back before suddenly reaching out again. The knife tip thrust straight toward Qin Zhen’s arm, though fortunately Qin Zhen dodged with agility.
“Damn it! You actually strike!”
The dagger clattered to the floor with a heavy ring. It took Shen Jin’an a long moment to collect his wits, and he asked with uncertainty, “Qin Zhen?”
Kicking the dagger under the bed, Qin Zhen felt cold sweat break out all over his back. This time he genuinely felt a sense of danger, and he began to suspect that Shen Jin’an had mental health issues.
Who knew, maybe one day he would get murdered in his sleep, and the other party wouldn’t even have to face criminal liability.
“Qin Zhen,” Shen Jin’an called out again, his voice laden with a mixture of confusion, weakness, and helplessness.
Looking down condescendingly at the person on the bed, Qin Zhen had no mood to entertain him. He did not possess a masochistic streak.
Yet in the next second, Shen Jin’an suddenly touched the back of his hand with cold finger bones, quickly retracting his hand as if startled. Tightly clutching the blanket with both hands, his expression turned terrified, his voice trembling.
“Qin Zhen, I am sorry.”
He whispered, “I am sorry, I truly am sorry, it was all my fault.”
Qin Zhen took a deep breath, flexed his hand into a loose fist, and recalled the things 999 had told him during the day.
It had said that it didn’t understand why Shen Jin’an was a villain either. Looking at Shen Jin’an’s past and future through the electronic eye, it only knew that he was a pitiable person, but pitiable people would ultimately have hateful traits. Sooner or later, an antisocial personality would emerge, leaving those around him in turmoil and ultimately causing him to meet a violent death himself.
In his past life, after Shen Jin’an left, the two of them never saw each other again. He had occasionally worried about him, wondering how this person could be so devoid of emotion that he couldn’t even send a single message.
Little did he know that the other party’s end was hanging by a thread even earlier than his own.
Silence reigned for a moment as Qin Zhen leaned back over and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Does the wound still hurt?” he asked.
A brief look of bewilderment crossed Shen Jin’an’s face, his murky eyes blinking twice before clarity returned to them.
Pulling back the blanket, Qin Zhen pressed his hand against an uninjured spot near Shen Jin’an’s waist. “Speak. Does it hurt?”
Displeased, Shen Jin’an frowned, “No.”
Qin Zhen promptly tucked the blanket back over him. “If it doesn’t hurt, go right to sleep. Is holding a knife and scaring people in the middle of the night fun? Do you think you are an assassin?”
Tables turned, completely brushing past his own intrusion into the bedroom in the middle of the night.
Shen Jin’an: “…”
Following the passage of a single night, the online public opinion fermented and grew increasingly fierce, transforming Qin Zhen’s name online into a derogatory synonym.
The police station closest to L&M hadn’t taken the report too seriously when it was filed the previous day, given that both parties hadn’t suffered any actual personal injury or property loss.
However, as the incident grew more chaotic, many netizens who watched Yang Xiaoliang’s live stream the night before unilaterally concluded that the injuries on Brother Liang’s face were inflicted by Qin Zhen, banding together to seek justice under the police station’s social media accounts.
Consequently, early in the morning, several police officers came downstairs to the company to conduct visits and investigations.
Yang Xiaoliang was no fool either. The left side of the pillar at the entrance was a blind spot for surveillance, and the lobby cameras only captured the moment when he weakly crashed into the pillar at the end.
During the police questioning, he put on the act of a pitiful victim who didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, repeatedly telling the police that it was truly nothing, that conflicts among colleagues were normal, and that he was very grateful to the enthusiastic netizens who helped report the incident. He claimed he didn’t want to make workplace relationships too tense, and he felt terrible that Qin Zhen was now facing cyberbullying, adding that he would record a video later to persuade the netizens otherwise.
Exchanging a glance, the two interviewing police officers both frowned imperceptibly, though they only concluded the questioning strictly and let him leave without revealing who the primary informant was.
Mu Xiaoxiao was the second person to be interviewed, inside a small company meeting room devoid of cameras.
She described the entire process of what she had seen yesterday to the police, making no effort to hide her disdain for Yang Xiaoliang.
The female police officer packed up her notebook, nodded as she observed the surrounding environment, and left.
On the other side.
When Qin Zhen woke up again, he no longer saw Shen Jin’an standing by the door like an assassin, watching him with wary eyes.
Instead, the young man was sitting alone on the bed, sending messages on his phone. No matter how bright the light outside the window was, it still made him look somewhat desolate.
Shen Jin’an was like a person wandering on the edge of the world; regardless of what the outside world was like, he only focused on his own affairs, leaving all the hustle and bustle completely unrelated to him.
Seeing this scene felt familiar to Qin Zhen, and an odd feeling surged up in his heart.
He gave a slight shrug. “999, go confirm it again. Does Shen Jin’an really have no mental issues?”
999 was still angry with Qin Zhen, feeling that this host was completely impolite toward it and always telling it to stay aside, so it remained silent and observed in a huffy, covert manner.
“I’m talking to you. Did you go to recharge again?”
Interstellar regulations dictated that systems must not ignore their hosts.
With no other choice, 999 flew out sluggishly and snapped, “I already told you it was to replenish energy! Without any problems, why would he need redemption?”
It felt like this host was the one with problems!
Left speechless, Qin Zhen raised his hand and tapped on the door frame. Shen Jin’an looked up at him, ignored him, and continued tapping away on his phone screen.
“Eat.”
There were only a few eggs left in the refrigerator, so Qin Zhen made two bowls of plain noodle soup. Staring at the fried egg in front of him for a long time, he finally thought of Shen Jin’an’s injuries and placed the egg into Shen Jin’an’s bowl.
Yet when Shen Jin’an sat down, he poked at the fried egg in front of him a few times with his chopsticks, severed a corner of the egg, placed it into Qin Zhen’s bowl, and signaled for him to eat first.
Qin Zhen was choked severely by the noodles in his mouth.
He finally figured it out. So, when the other person waited for him to eat the food yesterday before eating, it wasn’t out of politeness. He was testing the food for poison using him as a guinea pig!
“How many people have harmed you to make you this guarded? If I wanted to poison you, I could have poisoned the water last night, or the towel, or the toothpaste. There are plenty of ways. Could you possibly defend against me?”
“Besides, if I wanted to harm you, I simply shouldn’t have saved you that day, guaranteeing you would freeze to death in the cold rain by the side of the road. Why bother bringing unnecessary trouble upon myself? Don’t you think your brain doesn’t work right sometimes?”
Shen Jin’an’s brows grew increasingly cold, his cheeks bulging slightly as he clenched his teeth.