I Can Do This

Jessica Jones was speechless.

She truly felt like she had never done anything wrong. She had clearly made up her mind to control her temper and stop picking fights, so why did her life always have to be full of blind idiots coming along to ruin her day?

Trish had once asked her why other people could stay peacefully in one job, while she always ran into all sorts of bizarre bullshit.

Jessica had wanted to say—I fucking want to know too!

Just like now. She had arrived at the Daily Planet on time that morning. All she had done was take the elevator up to her office, and this idiot dressed like some punk had appeared out of nowhere, grabbed her wrist, and told her to get out.

Jessica had immediately wanted to ask, who the hell are you? Did your family build this elevator or something?

Though she had resolved to avoid trouble whenever possible, if she obediently got out at a time like this, then she would not be Jessica Jones.

The thug grabbed her wrist and yanked... nothing happened.

The thug froze, somewhat surprised. He had not expected this woman to be so much stronger than she looked, but with so many brothers—and even the boss—watching, he could not just back down!

So he increased his strength and gave another harder yank... yeah, still nothing.

Jessica stood in the elevator like an iron statue, staring at him as though she were examining an idiot.

Everyone began looking at the thug with contempt. Though no one said anything, their expressions clearly said, What a loser. You cannot even pull a woman.

Naturally, the thug did not like that. His face turned bright red. He grabbed Jessica's pale wrist with both hands and cursed, "What the hell? I refuse to believe this..."

"All right, enough. This is not why we came," the leader said coldly, frowning. "Forget it. We are short on time."

Since the boss had spoken, the thug could only let go reluctantly. Still, he shot Jessica one last vicious glare, as if to say—You got lucky, woman. If the boss had not said anything, you would have had it coming today.

Jessica sneered.

Heh, you got lucky. I'm cultivating my character and keeping my temper in check right now. Back in the day, I would've pried open the elevator doors with one hand and thrown you down the shaft with the other.

Thus, the elevator carried this gang of thugs, along with Jessica, straight up to the top floor of the Daily Planet.

As soon as the elevator reached the top floor, the thugs crowded around their leader and filed out.

The leader stepped into the bustling office and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Where is Cathy Grom?"

Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and turned to look.

Jessica, standing nearby, also looked at them in surprise.

So these people had come looking for trouble?

Jessica considered whether she should casually take care of them and save everyone some hassle.

At that moment, Richard appeared unhurriedly.

"Cathy went out to cover a story," he said. "I'm the owner here. You can tell me whatever it is."

The leader snorted and held out a hand to the side. One of his underlings immediately understood and hurriedly handed him a rolled-up newspaper.

"See for yourself."

Richard took the newspaper and opened it. Was this not the bestselling report Cathy had written a few days ago? Ultraman fought the Green Snake Gang and rescued a girl in distress. The photos were quite good too.

Richard nodded. "It's very well written, and the photos are on point too. Out of ten, I'd give the girl a seven. She's a newcomer, after all. Wouldn't want her getting too proud."

The leader immediately got furious. The fuck did it matter to him whether her writing was good or not?

"Let's be frank," the leader said, pulling over a chair and sitting down arrogantly. "You may have guessed already. We're from the Green Snake Gang. I'm Adder. You news people are well-informed, so I'm sure you've heard of that name..."

Richard answered bluntly, "No. Never heard of it." Then he looked at the others around him. "Has anyone here heard that name?"

The reporters all shook their heads.

Adder was so angry his nose nearly twisted crooked. Could they speak properly? What was wrong with this lousy newspaper?

The report Cathy had published that week had exploded across the city, and the Green Snake Gang had suffered for it. Overnight, the previously unknown little gang became famous throughout New York's five boroughs, and their human trafficking business was thrust into the spotlight.

The crime boss above the Green Snake Gang flew into a rage and unleashed a torrent of abuse at the Green Snake Gang's leader, Viper, accusing them of incompetence and causing all this trouble. Viper did not dare utter a word in response, but he was boiling with anger. So he could only return to his own gang and vent his fury on his own small fry, cursing his underlings as a bunch of useless idiots for letting an intern reporter from a newspaper catch them red-handed.

The more Viper thought about it, the angrier he became. He desperately wanted someone to vent his anger on. But they could not find Ultraman, and even if they did, they could not afford to provoke him. So naturally, they could only take it out on the little reporter who had written the article. The more Viper thought about it, the angrier he got. He felt that if not for that meddling reporter poking around everywhere, she would never have drawn that godlike figure named Ultraman to his turf.

So Viper waved a hand, and his underling Adder brought a bunch of underlings' underlings to the Daily Planet to make trouble.

Adder felt slighted. They had not even gotten to the main point yet, and his momentum had already taken a huge hit.

Adder pulled a pistol from his waist and laid it flat on the table in front of him.

He did not actually know what the point of doing that was. It was just that in movies and TV shows, mob bosses always liked putting guns on the table when they were acting tough, so he thought it looked cool and made him seem confident.

"Let's be frank, Mr. Richard," Adder said slowly. "Look, we do not really have any deep-seated grudge against each other. It's just that your report has indeed caused us some trouble. So our demands are simple. First, you need to stop making a fuss over what happened before. If you do, our boss may be willing to let bygones be bygones. Second, hand over the reporter who wrote that article, if you know what's good for you. Otherwise... heh heh, you do not want to know the consequences."

Adder was fairly satisfied with his performance. He felt he should have been threatening enough by now. Yet these reporters all looked like they were just watching a show. Normally, should they not be panicking the moment he pulled out a gun?

"Oh." Richard nodded calmly and gave Jessica a look. Jessica understood, slowly walked forward, and picked up the pistol Adder had laid on the table.

Adder did not panic at all when he saw her pick up the gun. He merely chuckled. "I bet you do not even know how to use that, do you? Do you know how to take the safety off?"

"I don't."

Jessica admitted it openly. Then she exerted force with both hands and bent the entire barrel of the gun.

"But I can do this."