The Cold Female Colleague

For Lin Xinyi, this brief morning had been an unprecedented new experience.

His previous work had always been busy and fulfilling. He had been fighting every moment, and every second had meaning.

But now, a full two hours had passed. Other than breaking his beginner Minesweeper record down to three seconds, he had done absolutely nothing meaningful.

This was something Lin Xinyi had never been able to imagine before.

To him, this kind of empty, dull, tedious, life-wasting job—

"Wasn't it way too awesome?"

Lin Xinyi felt a little moved.

He did not have to do anything. Just sitting in the office earned him 890,000 yen a month.

Compared with before, when even avoiding being woken up in the middle of the night by a call to rush to a scene had been a luxury...

"Alright, let's go to the cafeteria."

Having just wasted two hours of his life, Lin Xinyi was indeed feeling a little tired.

Now that Yamada had thoughtfully come over to remind him about lunch, he simply went along with it, nodded, got up, and headed to the cafeteria with Yamada.

Perhaps because the original owner had already been withdrawn and taciturn by nature, Yamada had not noticed at all that his "boss" had become a completely different person inside.

He obediently led the way ahead, while Lin Xinyi followed at an unhurried pace, taking the chance to familiarize himself with the company's layout.

Before long, they arrived at the company cafeteria.

The cafeteria was not especially large, but it was elegantly furnished, and the food selection was extensive and varied.

After a quick look around, Lin Xinyi realized that employees ate there completely free of charge. They could take whatever they wanted, making every meal essentially a free high-end buffet.

"The company's benefits are absurdly good..."

At that moment, Lin Xinyi even wanted to keep coasting at this company forever.

He did not waste words. Instead, he followed Yamada's example, took a tray, and began selecting food.

After getting their meals, they were about to sit down when they discovered that there were not quite enough tables.

The small cafeteria was nearly full of employees who had come to eat.

Those employees were clearly divided into two groups:

One group wore black clothes and carried handguns at their waists. There were fewer than twenty of them, all security personnel under Lin Xinyi's command.

The other group all wore white lab coats and generally had frail, scholarly temperaments. There were around thirty or forty of them, all technicians from the pharmaceutical company.

The guards and researchers clearly had nothing to talk about with each other.

They sat in their own clusters, nearly filling every table in the cafeteria.

Only one large table was still relatively empty.

A young female researcher sat there, dressed in a simple white lab coat, with short brown hair.

This young woman—no, girl was more accurate—had claimed the entire large table, which could seat six people, all by herself.

Strangely, despite the shortage of seats, no one nearby tried to share a table with her.

Whether they were researchers in white coats or guards in black, everyone seemed to be deliberately avoiding sitting near her.

But Lin Xinyi had no such reservations.

"Let's go to that table."

Carrying his tray, he prepared to join the female researcher for lunch.

But Yamada, who had been following beside him, hesitated and stopped.

"Ahem... Boss, you go ahead by yourself."

"That woman always talks in that nasty, sarcastic way. I don't feel like asking for trouble."

"Oh?" Lin Xinyi found it faintly strange, but compared to that female researcher who seemed unpopular, he was even less willing to sit with "acquaintances" like Yamada when he had none of the original owner's memories.

So after thinking it over, he ultimately walked toward the brown-haired girl sitting alone.

As he got closer, Lin Xinyi was able to see the girl's features more clearly.

To describe her in his usual manner, this girl was... heh.

Female. Estimated height: 170 centimeters. Well nourished. Regular facial features. No deformities in her limbs.

High, straight nose bridge. Narrow nasal wings. Small nose tip. Low cheekbones. Flat jawbone. She had mixed-race features.

There was mild brownish-black pigmentation around her eye sockets. The rest of her skin was pale, with no jaundice.

Her pupils were equal, round, and regular on both sides. Her corneas were clear, and her irises were blue-green.

The capillaries in her eyes were congested, with visible bloodshot veins.

From the upper edge of her collarbone to the lower jaw, at roughly one-third of the distance, venous filling was visible while seated. Her jugular vein distension was fairly obvious.

"She was quite pretty."

"But she was clearly overworked for a long time. The pressure on her right heart was excessive."

"She lacked sunlight, had a sickly pale complexion, and was in poor mental condition."

This girl had worked far too much overtime. She was in very unhealthy shape.

That was how Lin Xinyi summed it up to himself.

At the same time, as he drew closer step by step, the brown-haired girl noticed him as well.

Her brows furrowed slightly, and undisguised disgust appeared in her eyes.

She did not say anything, but the hostility in that gaze was obviously directed at Lin Xinyi.

Lin Xinyi paid it no mind.

It was better if she disliked him. He only wanted to eat quietly and had no desire to chat with a female colleague he did not know at all.

Talking too much would make it easy to expose himself, and he would have to put effort into explaining things.

Thus, under her icy gaze, Lin Xinyi casually sat down at the corner of the table diagonally across from her.

As he sat down, he inadvertently noticed the work badge hanging from her chest.

"Name: Miyano Shiho."

"Position: Chief Researcher."

Chief Researcher?

Lin Xinyi began to wonder.

A girl so young was actually serving as Chief Researcher at such an important laboratory?

After all, this was different from his position as Security Director. Chief Researcher was a thoroughly technical role. Could such a young girl really handle it?

Lin Xinyi was surprised, but in order to minimize interactions with "acquaintances," he did not ask any questions out of curiosity.

And so, amid the silence, he lowered his head and began eating intently.

"This guy was a little strange."

Lin Xinyi said nothing at all, yet the girl named Miyano Shiho found herself stirred instead.

She keenly noticed that Lin Xinyi was somewhat different from before today.

The old Lin Xinyi had been withdrawn and depressed. He dressed sloppily and paid no attention to his appearance. There had been no life in his eyes, and he only ever walked with his head lowered, staring at the ground. He had been like a rusted machine, a walking corpse controlled by someone else.

But although today's Lin Xinyi was similarly withdrawn and silent,

he had cleaned himself up neatly. His gaze had become firm and powerful, carrying a different kind of vitality.

Then she looked at the way Lin Xinyi ate.

His lunch was a Western-style steak, and he was using a knife and fork.

The gleaming silver knife was exceptionally adept in his hand. With every stroke, he precisely cut a suitably sized piece along the grain of the meat.

His knife work was gentle and elegant, as if he were an aristocrat trained in etiquette.

That was not the sort of behavior someone who paid no attention to manners would display.

Of course, Miyano Shiho could not have known that Lin Xinyi's skill at cutting meat with a knife had not come from eating Western food.

But regardless, she could already vaguely tell that Lin Xinyi was different from before.

The current Lin Xinyi felt more approachable.

However...

"He was still so irritating."

"Why did he have to sit so close?"

The dislike in Miyano Shiho's heart refused to fade.

Come to think of it, she and Lin Xinyi could be considered old acquaintances.

Lin Xinyi had been a reserve talent recruited and trained by the organization. He had once been sent to study at Columbia University with her.

Lin Xinyi had studied clinical medicine, while she had studied biology and pharmacology.

But they had not had much interaction during university. Even when they had, the memories were extremely unpleasant—

Lin Xinyi had ostensibly been sent there to study and gain experience, but in reality, the organization had dispatched him to keep a close watch on Miyano Shiho and prevent her from escaping its control while studying in America.

In other words, Lin Xinyi was a shackle the organization had placed around her neck.

That shackle bound her at every moment, preventing her from escaping and pinning her firmly within this abyss of darkness.

And that dreadful situation had even continued until now.

After Miyano Shiho graduated from university, the organization sent her here to lead pharmaceutical research.

Lin Xinyi had also graduated from Columbia University alongside her and was assigned to this laboratory as Security Director. His main responsibility was still to monitor Miyano Shiho.

He was a vicious dog carefully raised by the organization, and Miyano Shiho knew that she was a bird imprisoned in a cage, tightly guarded by that vicious dog.

Therefore, no matter how much Lin Xinyi's bearing had improved, the moment she saw that glaring black outfit on him, she immediately thought of the desperate situation in which the organization held her under house arrest and coercion.

"How disgusting..."

The more Miyano Shiho thought about it, the less she could eat.

It was not only because of Lin Xinyi. It was also because he made her think of the man Lin Xinyi directly obeyed: Gin.

That demon had come to the laboratory that very morning and taken another batch of APTX4896 from her—those tiny capsules she had developed herself. She had no idea how many more people Gin would use them to kill.

The thought made Miyano Shiho lose her appetite even further.

She stood up just like that, frowning as she stared deeply at Lin Xinyi.

"Huh?"

Lin Xinyi was somewhat baffled by her look.

He had thought that "he" merely had a poor relationship with Miss Miyano, but judging from that look... did they have a grudge?

But Miyano Shiho simply turned and left without looking back.

She wastefully left behind a peanut butter and blueberry sandwich that she had taken only a few bites from.

"This..."

Lin Xinyi frowned deeply.

Overwork, jugular vein distension, and now such a poor appetite.

This girl's health was really terrible...

Fine. He had better be ready to perform CPR at any time.