Chapter 2 – Sensitive and Impulsive

After attending the funeral, Xu Jinliang went to a wedding.

It was President Wei’s third marriage. He had invited her, so she had no choice but to attend.

She sat amid the noisy banquet with a stiff smile on her face. Her eyes looked exceptionally beautiful when they curved into crescents, appearing affectionate and gentle. Everyone who came to toast her felt comfortable, even delighted. When she looked at them with a smile, they experienced the illusion of being blessed with happiness.

For many years, those around her had both respected and adored her.

But there would always be people who, unable to possess something, chose to disparage it instead.

They were friends and relatives of the bride, several men in their thirties. At first, they merely discussed her among themselves, saying that she was too tall and imposing to resemble a woman and that her rigid clothing lacked femininity. When she grew warm and removed her jacket, exposing forearms that showed signs of regular exercise, the men saw them and said, “No one understands working out better than I do. With a build like hers, she still dares to develop muscle? Is she trying to become a man?”

Another man brought his wineglass to his lips but paused before drinking, eager to agree. “She really does look awful.”

“Hey, her face is actually quite beautiful, and her proportions are good. She’s just too tall. Think about it—if you kept her appearance and proportions exactly the same but shrank her entire body down a little…” As he spoke, he gestured with his hands, making the others laugh lewdly.

“A smaller version would be pretty good. She’d be fucking hot. But as she is now, tsk, tsk. Try getting on top and riding her, and she’d unauthorized copyprobably buck you right off! Hahaha!”

They kept their voices low while saying such things. In any case, their words could not reach Xu Jinliang’s table.

Xu Jinliang watched several young subordinates laughing and fooling around nearby. They were discussing games, stocks, and escape rooms. One of them even tugged on the arm of a middle-aged woman from management. “Sister Yan, come with us again next time! We’ll get an easy win if we follow you!”

Sister Yan looked somewhat embarrassed and said shyly, “I can’t keep up with you youngsters and the things you enjoy.”

“Nonsense! Sister Yan’s reasoning was incredible. You even left the NPC speechless! Hahaha!”

Realizing that they were being too loud, they looked around, paying particular attention to Xu Jinliang’s expression. Then they huddled together and lowered their voices. “Sister Yan, join our group chat. You can just check the messages after work. We definitely won’t undermine your authority in the department, hehe.”

Their behavior was indeed meant to avoid affecting the other managers, but it also made it clear that they belonged to the same little circle, one that outsiders could not enter. Everyone else, including Xu Jinliang, ignored them and had no intention of joining. It was nothing more than a minor interlude.

Yet Xu Jinliang picked up her bag with a smile and went to the restroom.

Inside a stall, she lost control, clawing at the door. Her eyes were vacant, yet her pupils trembled rapidly and uncontrollably. “Why, why, why, why… Why can they be so happy? Why… Why…” Her mouth hung open as she muttered rapidly in an extremely quiet voice.

It was as though she had abruptly fallen into some kind of crisis, but her instinctive desire ​unauthorized copy​to appear “normal” compelled her to regain control and restore herself as quickly as possible. Her right hand stopped clawing at the door and began striking her head, while her left hand repeatedly reached upward, grasping at empty air.

“Why, why, why…”

Finally, her right hand stopped striking her head. Her left hand also stopped grasping. She clenched her fist so tightly that her knuckles turned purple.

She stopped.

At last, she temporarily calmed down. Once her composure returned, coldness seeped through her entire body, as though frigid air were escaping from between her bones. She walked out of the stall and began washing her hands, rinsing them repeatedly before using her dripping-wet fingers to tidy her hair.

She returned to the banquet. Because she took a different route, she happened to pass the section occupied by the bride’s friends and relatives. By then, the men who had been watching and discussing her had already gone through several rounds of drinks. Their voices had grown louder, and they had become even more unrestrained.

“Fuck, I still think that face is wasted on her.”

“Oh, give it a rest. She’s not young anymore, is she? Are you into that sort of thing?”

“You don’t know shit. An old Bentley is still a Bentley, isn’t it?” After he said that, the man beside him lewdly bumped his arm and said, “She does look delicious, but even an old Bentley needs 98-octane fuel. Can you handle that?”

The man laughed and cursed at him. “Hahaha, fuck you. I don’t want anyone like her. She’s big and stolen contentold—who knows how fucking loose she is? You’d stick your dick inside and wouldn’t even be able to find the sides. She’s practically an entire fucking universe! Hahaha, ha… ha…” From the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a tall figure. Although he was sitting down, it was not difficult to imagine that this person was taller than him—taller than all of them, in fact.

He fell silent, looked over, then guiltily lowered his head and picked up his wineglass. Everyone at the table went quiet in tacit understanding.

These men had repeatedly looked at her and whispered among themselves earlier. Their guilty reactions when Xu Jinliang passed by made it even more obvious that all those filthy remarks had been directed at her.

Xu Jinliang’s expression did not change. A smile still lingered on her face, and her crescent-shaped eyes appeared as gentle and affectionate as ever. She continued walking farther inside. When she passed a server carrying a tray, she politely turned sideways and gently warned, “Careful.” When the server moved aside to let her pass, she smiled and nodded. “Sorry for the trouble. Thank you.”

As the banquet approached its end, her colleagues from the factory gathered to discuss how they would get home. At that moment, Xu Jinliang frowned and rubbed her fingers. Someone quickly noticed her discomfort and asked, “Factory Director, what’s wrong?”

She said helplessly, “The weather hasn’t been good lately. It’s nothing. Just an old problem.”

The person leaned closer to look and exclaimed, “Your joints are all red. Is there something wrong with your bones?”

“It’s fine. I’m already used to it. It’s just… particularly painful today.”

As the conversation continued, many people came over to express their concern. One person pulled a pair of cycling gloves from his backpack. “This is all I have. I don’t know whether they’ll help, but if you don’t mind, Factory Director, you can make do with them.”

Hesitation appeared on Xu Jinliang’s face. “Won’t that [stolen content]affect you when you ride your bicycle?”

The man repeatedly waved his hands, grinning foolishly. “No, no. I drank quite a bit today, so I won’t be riding. I’ll take a taxi home.” With that, he placed the gloves in front of Xu Jinliang.

The people from the factory soon left. Quite some time later, a drunken man—apparently one of the guests’ friends or relatives—staggered around searching everywhere. “Huh? I remember bringing a raincoat. I… I saw the forecast saying it would rain, so I brought one. Where did it go?”

Inside the men’s restroom, a man relieving himself kept thinking about the phrase “old Bentley.” After finishing, he turned around and accidentally bumped into someone. The person was extremely tall and wore a raincoat with the hood pulled up. “Oh, sorry, brother. I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry about that.”

He received no response, but he did not care and began walking toward the exit, muttering, “You’re pretty tall, brother. Hehe.”

The instant he finished speaking, he suddenly opened his mouth and howled. In the next moment, however, something was shoved into his mouth and silenced him. It was a piece of cloth, an ordinary cleaning rag commonly found in restrooms, but broken glass had been wrapped inside it. His mouth moved instinctively, and his teeth immediately bit down on the shards of glass scattered throughout the cloth. Blood streamed from the corners of his mouth, yet he could not make a sound. All he could do was whimper in agony.

Even that was not enough for the person attacking him. Gloved fingers forcefully pushed the cloth farther inside. The back of his neck was firmly pinned down, preventing him from turning to see his attacker. He could only see a pair of dark gloves brutalizing him. The person used so much force that he could hear the attacker’s rapid, labored breathing.

He had already consumed a great deal of alcohol. Combined with suffocation and oxygen deprivation, his struggles were as futile as an ant attempting to shake a tree. Soon, he watched the dark glove that had tortured his lips and tongue pick up a large shard of broken glass and bring it toward his eye. Tears and mucus streamed down his face, but he was restrained and could only shake his head slightly.

Perhaps he was begging for mercy.

But his attacker could not hear him—and had no desire to listen.

“Mmph—!!”

At the entrance to her residential complex, Xu Jinliang stepped out of her car after the designated driver left. Another car soon stopped beside her. She calmly paused and looked toward it. The person inside was young—it was Cai Hua, someone who was like a goddaughter to her. Xu Jinliang’s pupils abruptly contracted, and her body stiffened. For once, she became visibly nervous.

Cai Hua spoke to her with the same affectionate tone as before, but her words made Xu Jinliang feel as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.

“Auntie Liang, you’ve left more than enough clues behind this time. Don’t forget that this isn’t the old days anymore—especially when it comes to forensic investigation.”

Modern forensic techniques had become increasingly sophisticated, but more importantly, Xu Jinliang had behaved extraordinarily out of character. She had never been this impulsive before, recklessly attacking someone herself without planning anything in advance.

In truth, both her mental state and her psychological resilience were extremely poor. When she could frequently obtain that rare and precious sense of pleasure, she became powerful, calm, quick-witted, and patient, like a spider weaving its web. But once she spent too long experiencing the emptiness and void inside her, she became incomparably fragile, uncontrollable, sensitive, and impulsive, teetering on the edge of losing herself.

Xu Jinliang clasped both hands in front of herself in an amiable posture. Smiling, she said to Cai Hua, “We haven’t seen each other in a long time. Would you like to come upstairs and sit for a while? We could have a meal together.”

Cai Hua smiled as well. “Wouldn’t that delay you from disposing of the evidence?”

Xu Jinliang’s eyes curved even more deeply.

This time, however, she did not say a single word.

She did not argue, but neither would she admit anything.